This invention relates generally to electronic assemblies and more specifically to electrical connectors for routing signals between printed circuit boards in an electronic assembly.
Electronic systems are often assembled from several printed circuit boards. These circuit cards are sometimes referred to as xe2x80x9cdaughter boards.xe2x80x9d The daughter boards are held in a card cage. Electrical connections are then made between the daughter boards.
One traditional approach is to interconnect the daughter cards using a backplane. The backplane is a large printed circuit board with few, if any, active components attached to it. Mainly, the backplane contains signal traces that route electrical signals from one daughter card to another. It is mounted at the back of the card cage assembly and the daughter cards are inserted from the front of the card cage. The daughter cards are in parallel to each other and at right angles to the backplane.
For ease of assembly, the daughter cards are connected to the backplane through a separable connector. Often, two-piece electrical connectors are used to join the daughter cards to the backplane. One piece of the connector is mounted to each of the backplane and a daughter card. These pieces mate and establish many conducting paths. Sometimes, guide pins are attached to the backplane that guide the daughter board connector into proper alignment with the backplane connector.
A two piece electrical connector has contacts in each piece of the connector that are adapted to make electrical contact when the two pieces mate. A traditional backplane connector has contacts that are shaped as pins or blades and the daughter card contact has contacts that are shaped as receptacles. Each pin is inserted into a receptacle when the connectors mate.
To make a high speed, high density connector, shielding is often added to the connectors. U.S. Pat. No. 5,993,259 to Stokoe, et al. represents a desirable shielding design and is hereby incorporated by reference. Teradyne, Inc., the assignee of that patent markets a connector called VHDM(copyright) that is commercially successful. Interconnection systems often employ power connectors along with signal connectors. In this way, power is transmitted from the backplane to the daughter cards to power the circuitry on the daughter cards. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/769,867 entitled xe2x80x9cWaferized Power Connectorxe2x80x9d filed Jan. 25, 2001 by Cohen et al., (which is hereby incorporated by reference) describes a waferized power connector that is suitable for use in an assembly with signal connectors. Teradyne, Inc., the assignee of that patent markets a connector called GbX(trademark) that is commercially successful.
Not all electronic assemblies employ a backplane. Some use a midplane configuration. In a midplane configuration, daughter cards are inserted into both the front and the back of the card rack. Another printed circuit board, called the midplane, is mounted in the center of the card cage assembly. The midplane is very similar to a backplane, but it has connectors on both sides to connect to the daughter boards inserted from the front and the back of the assembly.
A further variation is called a matrix configuration. In the matrix configuration, daughter boards are inserted from both the front and the back of the card cage. However, the boards inserted from the front are perpendicular to the boards inserted from the back. Connectors are mounted at the interconnection of these circuit boards to make connections between the boards.
Currently, there exists no suitable high speed, high density connectors for some matrix configurations. And, there exists no such connector system for a matrix configuration that readily incorporates power connectors.
With the foregoing background in mind, it is an object of the invention to provide power contacts for a connection system in a matrix configuration.
It is also an object to provide a matrix connector that is easy to manufacture.
The foregoing and other objects are achieved in a connector with two intermateable pieces. Each piece is made from a plurality of subassemblies, with some adapted to provide power connections. In the preferred embodiment, each piece includes both signal and power contacts.
In a preferred embodiment, each connector piece includes both power contacts and signal contacts oriented to provide a generally square component, allowing connector pieces attached to boards oriented orthogonal to each other to mate.